Glitne gets a new lease on life

Statoil expects the production life of the Glitne field in the Norwegian North Sea to extend to 2007.

Reinterpretation of the seismic data confirmed that reserves numbers should be upgraded. Present estimates place oil reserves at more than 50 MMbbl. This revision translates into a longer life for the field, which was to cease production last year.

Since Glitne came onstream in 2001, new information Statoil acquired from the wells indicated that the reservoir contains more crude than expected. A water injection well was accordingly converted for production, and these four producers flowed so well that the licensees approved a fifth well last year.

"This fifth producer is living up to our expectations, and confirms that the reserves are even higher than we thought," Svein Løining, Statoil field manager, said.

Now, plans are being laid to drill a sixth producer. The original plan for development and operation specified only three.

01/30/04